canberrabirds

Two Elusive Birds

To: <>
Subject: Two Elusive Birds
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:38:31 +1100

 

 

According to the Big H -  “Juvenile: ...  Iris, greyish brown (c91); also described as yellow or white ...”.    

 

[  For the Shy juv, “Iris described as dark brown, greyish white ..., grey or blue-grey.  ... Recently fledged juvenile said to have ... dark-brown iris.”]

 

 

 

From: Tobias Hayashi [
Sent: Thursday, 17 December 2009 10:29 AM
To:
Cc: Dan Mantle; Julian Robinson
Subject: [canberrabirds] Two Elusive Birds

 

SUCCESS!!

 

I went looking for the Chestnut-rumped Heathwrens at Pierces Creek forest early this morning and was rewarded with one decent view.

I headed out nice and early, and was out there looking for them by 6am. I saw one within 20 minutes, low down in a bush in the general area that they have been seen before. It was a very lucky sighting: I thought I detected some movement in the bushes ahead, and upon lifting my bins to investigate, I was rewarded with about 5 seconds view of a nice CRHW. This was around 10m away, through many intervening branches and foliage.

After that, around 6:30am, several birds started calling, although most of them only called with snatches of song, not very long or loud. In fact, a lot of them were doing mimicry, and I'm pretty sure they gave Silveryes and E Goldfinches a go, both very expertly mimiced. I ended up having 2 or three more glimpses of the birds as they either flew away or bounced out of view. No more views through the bins. This calling lasted for about half an hour, before all went silent again and I couldn't locate them again.

Throughout, no call playback used.

 

Whilst searching for the CRHW, I also stumbled across several Painted Button-Quail (there were at least two). In fact, once I was moving so slowly and quietly (chasing CRHWs) that a PBG walked straight past me, giving me very nice views of this elusive bird. I flushed it/them several more times, and from around 6:20-7:10am they were calling as well.

 

I was very pleased to get to see these two elusive birds, both extremely hard to get good views of in this area. The heathwren was a lifer for me, which was great.

 

Just one question: do some CRHWs have dark eyes? (as in juveniles, or some individuals?) The bird that I got good views of certainly looked like it had dark eyes, although all the material I can get my hands on suggests that they normally have pale eyes. I am certain it was a CRHW, no doubt about that. Maybe it was the low light or the distance or the many branches in between?

 

Cheers

Tobias

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the Canberra Ornithologists Group mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the list contact David McDonald, list manager, phone (02) 6231 8904 or email . If you can not contact David McDonald e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU